Complicated

Hermione stole a quick look at Harry. He was slumped over his test, his brow furrowed in concentration. Hermione smiled to herself and looked away. Picking up her quill, she twirled in it between her fingers, her motions resembling the swift motions of a novice baton twirler, and she thought about what she was going to do about Harry. Her thoughts consisted of if she was going to tell him or if she would wait until he picked up, and what she would do in the meantime.

~~~

"That test was brutal," Ron complained as he walked away from the classroom.

"N it wasn´t Ron. You just didn´t study hard enough," Hermione scolded, in a matter-of-fact tone.

Harry just walked along uncharacteristically quiet.

"Harry what´s wrong with you?" Ron asked, punching his shoulder to get his attention.

"Oh yeah, I´m fine," Harry said, "I just didn´t want to get scolded by "the brain" here, far having a hard time on the test."

Hermione sent him a disapproving glance too, but then let it be replaced by a small smug smile.

They reached the common room, and said the password, walking inside, hearing it swing shut behind them.

They walked over to a table and pulled up three chairs, throwing their bags on top of the table, and settling down in the chairs. They reached forward and removed their homework from their bags, inked their quills and stared down at their DADA assignment.

Ron stared down at the piece of clank parchment lying in front of him, and then glanced over at his notebook with the assignment written boldly, and groaned.

"An eighteen inch essay on how to defend yourself or possibly slay a Chimaera? Is he insane?" Ron complained.

`He´ was a reference to Professor Alcott, their new DADA teacher who was obsessive with having them write essays on the impossible.

"Oh quite your whining Ron, it´s not that hard. See?" Hermione stated, unrolling a parchment almost completely filled, "I´m nearly half done!"

The boys gaped at her.

"Half?!" Harry gawked, "That has to be at least be the final length, if not more!"

"So?" Hermione countered, "I haven´t even begun to describe basic methods of simple wounding."

The boys just rolled their eyes in her direction and then set upon their work. For a while nothing was said between the three, but soon enough, Hermione set down her quill, rubbed her hands and measured her essay, which topped off at thirty-two inches. She then took to hovering over Harry and Ron, pointing out important points in their open books and tutting when they tried to make their writing bigger to take up more space.

But even homework couldn´t stop Hermione from noticing how cute Harry looked while he was concentrating on his work. How his eyes lit up when he found something useful. Hermione sighed and then shook her head. Harry looked up at her, confused, which brought their faces closer than they were used to.

Hermione flushed and averted her eyes, turning away to help Ron. Harry also turned back to his work, but he couldn´t focus on it. He couldn´t stop think about how he was being so obvious about his feelings for Hermione. He had actually been considering kissing her. He was getting out of hand. He had to tell her soon...